Everything that's now 'normal' was once considered unconventional

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Hello Reader,

Do forgive the absence from your inbox while we found ourselves navigating our first round of school holidays and frankly, feeling very much in need of a break after the first quarter of 2024.

We revelled in getting away for a bit and into nature. Remembering what it is that really matters and pondering how to cultivate more of that in our 'normal'.

So that's the energy we're taking into the next quarter.

🌳 Learning that enriches.

🌳 Action that's meaningful.

🌳 Imagination and collaboration.

🌳 Space for nature, thinking and family time.

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Ready for that too? Let's go.

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Inspiring Purpose

Down one of the many rabbit holes we find ourselves in when fuelling our curiosity and curating for The Purpose Edit we discovered an article that was interesting in its own right, but it was the medium itself that piqued our curiosity.

This digital magazine is fuelled by solar power, which means it's only live for as long as it has the solar juice to do so. We think this is quite a wonderful example of using resources well and creating a change in consumer behaviour that limits a negative impact. Imagine if all websites were fuelled by renewable power...

Business As Unusual Innovation

What if communities managed their own budget and resources? Well that's a real example of participatory budgeting that started in Porto Alegre in Brazil way back in 1989 and inspired almost 3,000 other communities around the world to do the same. A rather fascinating approach to empowering citizens which proved to more equally distribute resources to where they were most needed and fund services most needed by the majority.

Over time in Porto Alegre it seems this model has not kept up with the times, showing once again that becoming locked to a single path - failing to innovate within the context of your environment - isn't great either. This case study from WEF is a worthy read and especially in the current context of so many social issues faced worldwide today, particularly around equity.

Regardless of which side of politics you sit on, shaking up classic governance structures and flipping the decision-making that made participatory budgeting work for so long provides at the very least a spark of inspiration for what is possible when we think unconstrained.

Both of us have achieved Global Reporting Initiative Professional Certification, which equips us with the leading framework for ESG reporting. SMEs who may be quivering in their boots about the incoming mandatory climate reporting and/or perhaps brushing it as a 'future problem' might want to consider:

📉 Mandatory reporting for large organisations is set to come into effect in Australia from January 2025

📉 SMEs who supply to said large organisations will be required to disclose their climate impacts (as part of Scope 3 supply chain emissions)

📉 Really smart SMEs will see this as an opportunity not just for compliance (boring), but to make a genuine effort towards reducing negative environmental and social impacts (far more exciting!)

Starting the process now will set you up far better than once your customers come knocking at your door for it.

Get in touch by replying to this email if this is on your mind.

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Roundup

💡 Aussie small businesses are less innovative - at least, that's what the latest CPA Asia Pacific Small Business Survey results show. And there's a correlation between age and innovation showing that those small businesses with older folks at the helm have less commitment or future plans for innovation. What say you?

💡 A delightfully ranty, thought-provoking read that ponders the end of the extremely online era, driven by people, not tech

💡 And carrying on the theme of the intersection of tech and culture, no, it's not just you, everything is becoming a bit the same as amusingly outlined in this article. As the homogenisation of culture becomes even more exacerbated by the accelerated use of AI - what does it actually mean to be human?

💡 And finally, in a perfect segue, imagination is something that algorithms and artificial intelligence absolutely cannot replicate. We've been loving imagining what an alternative future could look like through Tiny Glimmers from our good friend Jennifer Lachs PhD.

What We're Reading

Facing the Climate Emergency: How to Transform Yourself With Climate Truth by Maraget Klein Salamon. A particularly good read for those newly aware of the climate crisis - or those who keep popping their head back in the sand with every headline - this book provided some practical tips and reflection prompts for each chapter to make it engaging and thoughtful.

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